Hong Kong Digitalis a recurring series of movie reviews by John Charles -- a film
reviewer for Video Watchdog magazine and the author of The Hong
Kong Filmography.

Master With Cracked Fingers(1973; Fai Tan Film H.K. Co.): 3/10

Cover art courtesy Xenon.

Cantonese:Gwong Dung siu lou fu

Mandarin:Guang Dong xiao lao hu

English:Little Tiger from Guangdong

A young Jackie Chan. Image courtesy Xenon.

If there is one constant the world over when it comes to
being a movie star, it's that your early, long-forgotten projects will
invariably come back to haunt you. Back in 1973, an extremely young Jackie
Chan starred in a cheap independent production called THE CUB TIGER FROM
KWANG TUNG, which had little or no release before disappearing into oblivion.
When Chan became a superstar in the late 70s, the movie was dusted off
and re-edited, mixing in some bits swiped from DRUNKEN MASTER (1978) and
new footage of Simon Yuen Siu-tien, Dean Shek Tien, and an obvious Chan
double (whose face is never shown). The resulting jumble was acquired
by Eurotrash maven Dick Randall, who gave it the title MASTER WITH CRACKED
FINGERS and had it dubbed into English by actors who regularly re-voiced
Italian exploitation films. The movie was eventually acquired by 21st
Century Distribution, who put it into American grindhouses in 1981 under
the name SNAKE FIST FIGHTER, with a poster closely pattered after the
one for the big-budget Warner Brothers/Golden Harvest collaboration THE
BIG BRAWL. Years later, when Chan's star began to rise again in the West,
thanks to New Line's 1996 release of RUMBLE IN THE BRONX, all of his old
work was trotted out once more, including this shoddy effort. As is almost
always the case with cash-ins of this sort, MASTER WITH CRACKED FINGERS
has little going for it, save for the novelty value of seeing the still-teenaged
Chan working his magic, and will be all but unwatchable to those who know
the star only from his later Golden Harvest and Hollywood work.

Simon Yuen Siu-Tien. Image courtesy Xenon.

Impetuous young child Jackie wants to learn kung fu but
cannot afford to pay for lessons. He finds a willing teacher in the form
of a scraggly beggar (the great Simon Yuen Siu-tien in his signature role),
known as "The Man Who Isn't There," who just happens to be a
martial arts master. After several years of instruction, Jackie (now played
by Chan) is quite proficient but his father (Tien Feng) abhors violence
and forbids him to use his talents. The young waiter's temper, however,
is constantly tested by some local hoods and his father's punishments
grow more and more severe, culminating in Jackie being forced to plunge
his right fist into broken glass. The beggar is able to heal his pupil's
wound and Jackie is once again making trouble for the local ganglord,
foiling his henchmen and destroying their dockside extortion racket. The
triads burn down his home in retribution, killing Jackie's father, and
setting the stage for a final blindfolded duel between the lad and the
main villain (Korean fighter Kwan Yung-moon).

Tien Feng (right). Image courtesy Xenon.

The star's acrobatics are entertaining, but not on the level
of what he would accomplish later on in the decade, and the editing and
continuity are a mess. The film does have some mild pleasures, particularly
the endearingly comic antics of Simon Yuen, who is able to make the most
of his limited screentime and the dubious nature of the footage. Ultimately
though, MASTER WITH CRACKED FINGERS is the kind of unabashed ripoff that
gave old school kung fu films such a bad name in the West and will only
be of interest to die hard Chan fans and genre completists. Hon Kwok-choi,
a familiar comic figure in 70s films, co-stars as a pickpocket who changes
sides to help Chan. The soundtrack includes music lifted from Tangerine
Dream's score for SORCERER (1977) and the "Popeye, the Sailor Man"
theme!

It is pretty much impossible to evaluate MASTER WITH
CRACKED FINGERS on a quality scale as the movie has always looked
and sounded poor. The music warbles badly throughout and not a second
goes by without some kind of wear, water damage, scratch, speckle
or splice marring the image. The colours look slightly off throughout
and the image is almost always hazy. Xenon's master seems to have
been derived from the PAL VHS release of film from the UK Video
Programme Distributors label. White tape dropouts pop up occasionally
and, while the film is actually mildly letterboxed, it is still
well short of the original 2.35:1 proportions. The image is also
incorrectly framed from a vertical standpoint, causing the splice
line to be visible every time a shot changes. However, the authoring
(by Video Transfer) is competent and the presentation is no worse
overall than those familiar with this movie will have come to expect.

The disc also includes as extras the original ending
(presented in fullscreen and Cantonese, with Chinese and English
subtitles, and scored with music stolen from DAWN OF THE DEAD),
which is not all that different save for the fact that it takes
place at night, and 2 minutes of footage deleted from a scene 55
minutes into the movie (presented at 2.25:1 and in Mandarin, with
Chinese, English, and Japanese subtitles). The DVD also includes
trailers for SHAOLIN DOLEMITE, WELCOME TO DEATH ROW, and ILL-GOTTEN
GAINS. MASTER WITH CRACKED FINGERS is also available on DVD from
Madacy.